It's all part of Chinese puppet president on Taiwan Ma Ying-jeou's ingenious Swiss-cheese defense strategy. Build a big wall, then punch holes in it. Or in 21st Century parlance, ask for advanced fighter aircraft — then let spies take pics of military installations with impunity:
[…]
. . . [the Chinese "tourist"] was caught taking photos of military equipment installed at a computer warfare command center that is part of a military recruitment complex on Keelung Road in downtown Taipei. The recruitment center is open to the general public, but the computer warfare command area is a restricted facility.
Guy sneaks into a cyberwarfare center, and the Taiwanese authorities release him without bail. Perish the thought that an honorable Communist Party member such as he would ever abscond !
(Compare that to former president Chen Shui-bian, who's has been held in pre-trial detention for 6 1/2 months. But then, he doesn't have friends in Zhongnanhai places.)
UPDATE: Takes on this from The View from Taiwan and J. Michael Cole.
UPDATE (Jun 3/09): The Chinese spy returns home, scot-free. We'll be seeing a lot of this, I think.